Vietcombank Unready to Hit Stock Exchange This Year

The Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank, VCB), the first state-owned lender to sell shares to public, is finding hard to list its shares on the local bourse this year due to difficulties in negotiation process, said VCB Chairman Nguyen Hoa Binh last week.

 

The first hindrance mentioned is the share price offered to foreign strategic partners who have not agreed to buy the VCB shares at IPO price of VND107,806 each. Meanwhile, if Vietcombank reduces the price, it will violate the law and disappoint domestic investors.

 

Although being determined to list on the bourse within this year, the Vietnamese lender hasn’t decided specific time. "If the price is not decided, there is no next step," Binh said.

 

Another hindrance, Binh said, is the allocation of capital surplus from share sale. Vietcombank is still sad when allowed to retain only VND3.2 trillion from the IPO and pay VND7.5 trillion back to the state.

 

The bank had earlier planned to float shares on the country's main exchange in June after launching the IPO in Dec last year, but it delayed the listing until the third quarter of the year.

 

The International Finance Corporation has recently expressed the desire to become a foreign strategic partner of normal shareholder in VCB.

 

Vietcombank became a joint stock concern in June, with a registered capital of VND12 trillion. It now still maintains as leading among 37 partly private banks in Vietnam. VCB shares are traded at VND50,000-VND60,000 each on the OTC market. (Saigon Marketing, CafeF)